work is a four-letter word

I have given my boss two-week's notice. I have another job lined up, and in fact I am already working there part-time in the mornings.

Today I made it official that I was going to go full-time with it.

This radio gig has been great: I learned a lot, and was able to get back on my feet after the crippling economic downturns of 2001 and after. My boss was cool enough to give me the gig after being out of work for five months.

The reason I am leaving is monetary: I will be making shitloads of cash working in construction... not manual labor, though-- I'll be in an office, working online and doing research.

But, it will leave me with very little time to blog.

Finally, it has come to this, a day I knew would come.

When I first started blogging at the end of 2002, it was to fill the emptiness in my soul: I was working at a job where I had an office and decent pay but no real responsibilities. After being laid off from my other gig and not having any prospects, I was living at my dad's house and collecting unemployment checks.

Basically, I was farting around.

I was so depressed. I didn't have a single friend in the world, except for Holly Golightly and her band.

This radio job is great because of all the free time I have, but it is also one of the reasons why getting this new job will be good for me: there is such a thing as too much free time, and I don't know what to do with it.

It's back to working a job where I get up in the mornings, do my work until the whistle blows, then head home and get all the creative craziness out of my system there... only this time I will be making good money.

I have been able to survive on this salary but I'd be a fool not to take this chance-- I will be making $8 an hour more than what I make now. In the past five years, I have not had any increase in salary, thanks to a bad Bush economy and short-arms-deep-pocket start-up companies like the ones who have employed me in radio.

Of course, everyone knows by now that money isn't the real factor here-- the real motivation is to save money so I can do all the things I cannot do because I don't have any money.

I can buy an animation program and start making my own cartoons. I can buy a new bass and an amp. I can buy more RAM and more memory for my computer. I can buy a new computer desk. I can buy new clothes, and get my car tuned up properly... maybe I can get a new car altogether... nothing flashy, just something to get me around.

I can pay off the less-than-$1,000 in debt that I have yet to settle. I can maybe get myself into a house as opposed to an apartment. I can travel to New York, Europe and all the countries and cities I have been dying to visit.

It will be weird to make the transition, but at least it is progress.

Most likely I will spend the next two weeks treating this new job opportunity as an epitaph for my blog, but the blog itself will not be retired. I will not take it down nor will I issue a formal farewell.

There'll be long stretches between posts, but also less likelihood of my getting into fights with online bullies or wasting time on bullshit websites.

I am a bit scared, because I will actually have to work at this new gig. But I am already making the transition to getting to sleep and waking up early, so I figure it will be a fresh change of pace for an energetic bug like me.

More to come, for sure.